Drug War Revolt in Central America

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said Saturday he will propose legalizing drugs in Central America in an upcoming meeting with the region’s leaders.

Perez Molina said in a radio interview that his proposal would include decriminalizing the transportation of drugs through the area.

“I want to bring this discussion to the table,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a crime to transport, to move drugs. It would all have to be regulated.”

Central America is waking up very forcefully to the fact that they are the unwilling battleground for the war that the U.S. is fighting, and there isn’t enough money coming from the U.S. (or likely to) to make that worthwhile.

It’s like the U.S. went to the rest of America and said “Hey, we’d like to fight a war, but we don’t want to do it at our place. We just vacuumed. OK if we use your living room? We’ll give you a few bucks for the inconvenience.” And it sounded like a good deal at first until their children started dying.

Now, the countries to the south are all starting to get sick and tired of it. Ready to put up lawn signs saying “No drug war here. Try further north.”

this is the failure of the education system: that 36% would give the above thumbs down. it tells me that enemies of liberty and self determination are secretly on gov’t time reading the rants of common citizens and rejecting the arguments out of hand. high praise indeed. what part of “i rule my body, my chattels, and my household” do you not understand? i mind my own business. i don’t hire someone to tell me what to do. seems like a simple concept to me.

Very interesting development. It’s also pretty surprising, since, as I previously wrote about back in November when Perez-Molina signaled his intention to follow in the footsteps of Calderon in Mexico by launching a military offensive against the cartels operating in Guatemala. Quite nice to see him moving away from the failed model of aggressive interdictions efforts and back towards the only rational and humane alternative.

He has had time to look at the problem and he is a smart man. He saw the writing on the wall. In exchange for a few helicopters and some paltry assistence (the helocpters he can use for counterinsurgency) he gets a sword that’s all blade and no handle. He takes on a new enemy in the cartels, and he becomes Washington’s bitch forever. He may even be installing the machinery of his deposition if he ever dares challenge Washington’s line in the future. In this current climate every ruler ought to be very wary of any overtures from the devils in the State Department.

Exactly. We can also expect to begin hearing how Guatemala (and President Molina) is now a “threat” to the “children”, and how we “must never surrender” to whatever logic-based, reasonable ideas have surfaced which interfere with our government’s unchecked quest for absolute power and material gain.

IMO<it boils down to the buck,,as usual,,how much during our teetering economy will our budget committees allow?

Apparently the wosd costing even more than our treasury can print means nothing,,they can always continue selling guns and laundering money to cover the extra costs and make more "bonus" money for their agents.

Actually, this is something of a misnomer. The “ruling class” doesn’t make much/any money from the war on drugs: to them it’s more likely to cost than benefit. Where money is made from the drug war is usually in state and municipal governments: where fines are levied usually for misdemeanor possession. Local PDs get larger budgets because they have to combat the MENACE that is MARIJUANA.

So yeah, some folks make money off of it, but for the ruling class it’s usually more of a moral crusade than anything else. The people who are actually making money off of this are usually a little further on down the line.

Plus the ruling class passes all the forfeiture laws that let law enforcement officials appropriate large sums of money and property from people who have never been charged let alone convicted of a crime. And where does all the goodies from asset forfeiture go? Police coffers.

WHAT? But the war on drugs has been so successful! Oh wait….
But still, prohibition has always worked in the past! Oh…wait….
If people want these drugs, they will find them. Criminalizing drugs is almost as dumb as criminalizing suicide, maybe even dumber considering you’re stimulated a black market economy in the shadows (an untaxed one to boot)
Once it’s legal, it becomes more taboo than cigs or alcohol. And i mean legalizing doesn’t mean it will be sold in wal mart, there could still be regulations. Payode is available to those with enough mative american blood, but you don’t see that stuff everywhere.

One of the things that was most striking about it (in addition to the logical fallacies and poor writing) was how clearly terrified the drug warriors are of ANY country attempting a different approach. For example:

It is important to note that international law makes a distinction between “hard law” and “soft law.” Hard law is legally binding upon the States. Soft law is not binding. UN Conventions, such as the Conventions on Drugs, are considered hard law and must be upheld by the countries that have ratified the UN Drug Conventions

and

Any failures in a common approach to a problem would result in a complete breakdown in effectiveness. Differing and fragmented responses to a common predicament are unacceptable for the wellbeing of the international community.

Of course, that’s not their real fear, but they ARE right to be afraid. If one country is able to successfully defy the U.S., others will soon follow. And before you know it, the drug war’s entire house of lies will come crashing down. The situation reminds me of something I once read about North Korea:

Especially in full-bore Stalinist systems like North Korea’s, would-be dissidents feel like they’re completely alone, that no one else has any idea the emperor is naked. That’s why these regimes will mobilize massive state resources just to locate and punish a single graffiti artist. It’s critically important that everyone who hates the government feels like they’re the only people who do so.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a perfect analogy, and one that’s obviously been used many times in connection with the drug war. But it’s worth remembering that in that story, it was the voice of a single child speaking the truth that was enough to shatter the spell. THAT’S why they’re afraid. And that’s why we’re going to win.

Guatemala is pretty nasty place already, even before the expansion of the transit cartels into Central America.

My personal opinion is that the power players at the top of Guatemala’s politics decided that they don’t want to share power with the drug gangs, they have enough power within their own country to sell the public on legalization, and are they’ll come out of this stronger, even if they can’t bring around every country in Central America.

Illegal marijuana use in states with medical-marijuana laws apparently is widespread enough to influence traffic-fatality rates, based on the dubious assertion that young people would rather get high than drunk, and are less likely to have accidents as a result.
[…]
The study may make medical-marijuana proposals all the more attractive in Connecticut, which suffered the highest percentage increase in traffic fatalities in the nation in 2010 after having America’s fifth-best driving record the previous year, according to a December 2009 Forbes magazine report.
[…]
One hopes that Connecticut lawmakers will cringe, if only briefly, at the prospect of providing a public benefit ( maybe ) from a law that tacitly endorses illegal, personally and socially destructive activity.

One can only hope that they see these numbers of lowered traffic fatalities in medical marijuana states, compare it to their record increase in traffic fatalities, then come to the sensible conclusion that “the many harmful unintended consequences of more widespread marijuana use” are worse than maintaining marijuana prohibition.

I actually moved to Guatemala a year ago… I was here through the November presidential elections, when the two final candidates were Perez (a general during the incredibly brutal civil war, from which the UN has yet to clear him of genocide charges, with very good reason), and Manuel Baldizon, who had his US visa revoked for having too much narco money (he runs the northern Peten region, bordering Mexico, where the Zetas have taken a strong hold).

Make no mistake, there is no honor- NO honor- in Guatemalan politics. It is among the most corrupt governments in Latin America, and the UN has been quoted in official papers as saying it is one of the best places in the world to commit a murder because you “almost certainly will not get caught.” ALL criminals, regardless of the level or severity of the crime, operate with almost complete impunity. Robbers on motorcycles travel in groups of 3’s up and down the same mile-long stretch of traffic, robbing motorists at gunpoint, without even bothering to cover up their license plate or take off their jacket with their license number emblazoned clearly on the back. There is petty crime, violent crime, gang violence, and cartel violence. Each part of the country, and often individual parts of each city, are affected by a different concentration of each depending on the factors influencing that small area.

Over the past year, the security situation has gotten significantly worse. Having only been here for a year, I can only confirm that my friends who have lived here their entire lives, who have family members working in high positions to have access to security information, and who work at various branches of the tourist bureau’s and police forces, have expressed alarm at how quickly things are deteriorating from how direly bad they already were. The influx of the Zetas from Mexico as the “war on drugs” progressed has definitely played a part, and the weakness of the Guatemalan military and police in comparison to such a well-outfitted, well-armed cartel is cause for serious concern. Colom was known to have made millions of dollars from the narcotraficantes during his 4 years in office- as did many other people holding any office or position of power over the past 4 years.

Guatemala does NOT have the resources to fight the Zetas. End of story. We just don’t. If we take up the “war on drugs,” everyone will suffer here. The violence will get worse- not better. Mexico, violent before, has had a massive increase in violence against civilians. Massive. I’m lucky enough to have grown up in the US, where my safety was more or less guaranteed. I still can’t wrap my head around the level of violence found in some parts of this country, the violence that took place during the civil war, and the violence that Guatemalans have had to live with for one reason or another for the past 35-40 years. The US can’t be trusted to give us all the resources needed to fight this “war,” and their honest commitment to it is questionable at best. If Perez decides to stand up to the cartels, the entire country will suffer… even more.

Honestly, I hate Perez. It sickens me to know that this man took part in some of the most brutal massacres of innocent indigenous citizens during the war, and is now holding highest office. But, his decision to even TRY and approach the possibility of “legalizing” drugs is the best news I’ve heard come out of this country, politically, since I arrived. It’s something my Guatemalan friends are constantly bringing up as the “duh” solution to reducing the level of violence. None of us want to see the government push the cartels, because we know they can’t protect us from the cartels. My guess is also that Perez has realized this is the most profitable way to address the issue; make money for the country through regulating the transit, bearing in mind that he will absolutely have opportunities to make record money “off the books” through a variety of deals that we won’t ever hear about.

It’s too late DC, I had completely forgotten that until you reminded me. Are you one of those people that warns people to be careful right after they’ve stepped in a gopher hole earning themselves a broken leg? I probably could have added the AMA’s 2009 call for re-scheduling, the CMA’s 2011 endorsement of re-legalization, and then there was some Jewish organization that seemed pretty major observing from outside of the synagogue. But the last really doesn’t shock me. As far as religionists are concerned the Jews are the closest to rational and way out in front of the rest of the religionists.

science and truth are our hole card. the other side has a hand full of lies and distortions. if i worked for the dea i would be worried about my pension. i would support sending a good portion of of our narks to prison until they merge with the infinite.

There’s no right to a trial by a jury of your peers in the US. I’ve never heard of a jury of equals before. A jury of peers is a British thing meaning peasants judge peasants and royalty judges royalty. A jury of peers requires a caste system and in the US we’re all equal. At least that’s the story that they’re sticking to.